Many styles of gaming devices and games are known, including casual (or non-wagering) gaming and wager-based gaming. Such games are often presented via gaming devices, such as those found at a casino, which are commonly referred to as gaming machines, slot machines, etc.
As is known in the industry, wager-based gaming devices, e.g. “gaming machines,” are tightly regulated. Different jurisdictions have different regulations, but what is actually regulated is fairly consistent. For example, regulations are designed to secure the gaming machine both from tampering by unscrupulous players, but to also prevent casinos from changing the operation of the machine, such as to modify the payout schedule or the like. These and other regulations ensure that all players of a gaming machine get a fair and essentially equal chance to win (or at least that the gaming machine operates consistently relative to all players) and are designed to ensure the security of the machine and verifiability of the game outcomes (for example, regulations generally require certain levels of gaming machine security, including access control by the casino which may include certain monitored key locks and tamper detectors on gaming machine doors and the like, and a mechanism for storing game outcomes for playback).
Due to the tight controls on gaming machines, modification of gaming machines is difficult. Typically, any modification of settings on a gaming machine must be performed by a certified technician who accesses the gaming machine to make the adjustments. This typically is true for gaming machine components that are not specifically regulated, such as speaker volume of a gaming machine. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method for accessing and modifying features of a gaming machine.